Calling all car guru's.....

[mcvickj]

Car - 97 Ford Taurus GL

When I hopped in my car this morning to go to work I noticed my battery light stayed on. I was running late for work so I didn't really have any time to pop the hood and take a quick look. When I was backing out of the spot my car stalled. First time that ever happened. During the drive to work I noticed this light flickered a few times.

The battery is less than a year old. So I would guess that isn't the problem. Could this be a sign of an alternator issue? Maybe it could be as simple as the battery connections needing to be cleaned.

I plan to investigate further when I get out of work but I thought I would ask to get an idea.

 

[beason]

last time i had thi happen it was the altnator gone out.. barely got home.. couldnt even roll the windows up.. was running on all battery for like 45 min.. with headlights to!!

 

[Got Nitro?]

well if you think it's that alternator,start up your car and let it run,then remove the battery cables from the battery,if it dies,then it's your alternator.

 

[beason]

there is a "screwdriver" trick to.. something about if the screwdrive sticks to the altinator (or anything metal for that mater stick to it) then its charging.. if not then its dead.. maby someone that knows that one beter can chime in..

 

[Candyman]

A quick alternator check is to start your car and then remove the negative battery terminal. If the car continues to run for a while, the alternator is fine. It's providing the necessary voltage to run the car. But if the car stalls immediately or very soon after removing the lead, the alternator is probably toast.

 

[vbgagnon]

Clean off the batt terminals and go to a repair shop. They usually test batts/alt for free. They ahve a little computer like thing they hook up to the batt and so on. Just had it done for my bro on sat.

 

[mcvickj]

Thanks for the info. I'll give those suggestions a try. Just finished calling around for new alternator prices. Looks like it is going to set me back $160 for a rebuilt alternator with a lifetime warranty.

 

[beason]

get it checked first even if it dies when you disconnect the battery.. it may just be the charge lead or switch lead..

 

[4u2nv]

My guess would be a dirty battery terminal. Who wants to place the bets?? lol

 

[bustedgears]

take it to autozone and have them check your altonator, and battery. It's probably one of the two. If not then it's a wiring problem. something will be shorted.

 

[MustangMan]

DO NOT REMOVE THE BATTERY CABLE WHILE THE ENGINE IS RUNNING!!!!

This is an old mechanics trick before fuel injection. If the alternator IS working you could backfeed power and damage your PCM or other sensors.

Use a $5 volt meter across the battery terminals. You should have 13.5-14.5 volts at idle. If it is under 12-volts you have a problem.

Start the car cold and within a few minutes the alternator should be too hot to touch. This is a sign the alternator is putting out power.

You can also "full field" the alternator by grounding the screw on the back of the internal voltage regulator (IVR). When you do this the output should jump up to 14 volts or more...

 

[mcvickj]

I thought you guys would like an update. Here goes.....

Well I stopped to the local PepBoys to have them test the alternator. It tested out at 11.85 volts. So I picked one up and took off to my parents place to install the alternator. 45 minutes later and nothing. Still having the same problem. So I figured I got a bad one.

The next morning I head back to PepBoys to have them test the new alternator on the car and sure enough it tests bad. So they give me a new one and away I go. We get the new one installed and it still isn't working correctly. WTF? So we take it off the car and bring all 3 (2 new ones and the original alternator) back to PepBoys and have them test it on some different equipment and all 3 pass the test. What was really sad is the fact that the old one tested better than the new ones.

So we figured it was something with the wiring. We knew at this point it was out of our league so we contact a good friend of the family. He is a parts manager at a local dealer and he also does auto repair work on the side. Real knowledgeable guy.

This is what he found.

As you can see one wire is completely corroded and the other one was starting to go. Some how the wire was knicked and time did the rest.

 

[beason]

get it checked first even if it dies when you disconnect the battery.. it may just be the charge lead or switch lead..

hey i was right!! lol

 

[.21Rc10GT]

Well, good thing you got it fixed... If you followed Beasons advice, you would have a dead car...

 

[beason]

??? i didnt say disconect it is said even if it dies when you do the check the wires (which were the problem) also to rule them out..